Badger Vaccination

This project is funded by Defra and is in conjunction with colleagues at the Countryside and Community Research Institute (University of Gloucestershire/UWE) as well as people from FERA, VLA and RAC.

The aim of the project is to evaluate and assess farmers' confidence in badger vaccination. Vaccination may prove to be one of the "tools in the box" but there are a number of reasons why farmers may not have confidence in using a vaccine for bovine Tuberculosis.

 The project was to have originally followed the experiences of the Badger Vaccine Deployment Project in the 6 areas around the country where badger vaccination was to have been rolled out. As a result of the 2010 election however, the BVDP was cut down to just one area (near Stroud) with another area (near Cheltenham) acting as a reserve area and a training site.

Our accompanying social science project has also changed. The methodology is broadly as follows:

1- A survey of farmers in 5 areas. This has been completed and the results should be out shortly. A baseline and follow-up survey will help assess levels of confidence and trust in vaccination and show how they have changed.

2 - in-depth longitudinal interviews with farmers in 3 areas. These will address issues of vaccine confidence but also the wider contextual environment to show how that informs decisions about vaccination and other policy responses to bovine TB. This will be especially interesting given that the current policy direction is to give farmers' responsibility over dealing with TB themselves.

You can find more information about the BVDP here on FERA's website